After September 11, 2001, U.S. officials authorized the cruel treatment and torture of prisoners held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, and the CIA's secret prisons overseas.

This database documents the U.S. government's official experiment with torture. At present, the database contains well over 100,000 pages of government documents obtained primarily through Freedom of Information Act litigation and requests filed by the ACLU, and through litigation of Salim v. Mitchell, a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of the survivors and the family of a dead victim of the CIA torture program. To learn more about the database, please read the About and Search Help pages. If you're a developer, you can also access this data through our API.

Search Result (6709)

RelevanceDateRelease Date
Sept. 21, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3841
Email refers to a news article, which discusses the U.S. Military's CID investigation into allegations of murder and torture of an 18-year-old Afghan Army recruit who was detained by the U.S. The article also discusses the torture of seven Afghan ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Todd F. Buchwald
Joshua L. Dorosin | Ed Cummings
Todd F. Buchwald, Frank E. Schmelzer , Joshua L. Dorosin, Edward R. Cummings
May 13, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3842

Email includes news articles about high level detainees, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah and the "harsh" interrogation methods the CIA employs. The email includes another article, which reports specific accounts of abuse.

Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Jonathan B. Schwartz
Katherine M. Gorove | Michael J. Dennis
George W. Bush, Jonathan B. Schwartz, Katherine M. Gorove, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Frank E. Schmelzer , Michael J. Dennis, Mark P. Lagon, Lorne Craner, Michael G. Kozak, Miriam K. Hughes, Janice A. Smith
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Walid Bin Attash
Physical assault, General, Stress positions, Sleep deprivation, Isolation, Dietary manipulation, Environmental manipulation, Temperature, Hooding/Goggling, Nudity, Other Humiliation, Forced grooming
Sept. 16, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3839
Emails discuss the release of approximately one hundred and sixty Abu Ghraib detainees, and the expected release of over 250 the following week.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Amanda C. Pilz
Cara L. Abercrombie | Joshua L. Dorosin | Robin Lerner | Ashley A. Larsen | Elizabeth H. Richard | Ronald W. Miller | Charles W. Dunne | Jonathan J. Carpenter | Rexon Y. Ryu
Amanda C. Pilz, Cara L. Abercrombie, Elizabeth H. Richard, Ronald W. Miller, Joshua L. Dorosin, Jonathan S. Carpenter, Rexon Y. Ryu, Monica J. Tillery, Frank E. Schmelzer , Robin Lerner, Ashley A. Larsen, Charles W. Dunne
Sept. 20, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3840
Emails refer to DOD amendments to the abuse of detainee provision of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Beverly S. Holman
John D. Burnim, E. Holly Fitter, Daniel J. Krute, Gregory L. Schulte, Frank E. Schmelzer , William E. Moschella, Beverly S. Holman, Vanessa H. Riley, Monica J. Tillery, James L. Terry, James P. Terry, Peter N. Petrihos, William Steuer, John F. McNamara, Joseph E. Macmanus, James G. Hagan, Charles S. Faulkner
Aug. 27, 2004 | Non-US | ACLU-RDI 3837
Address from Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Biennial Conference of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Berlin, Germany on August 27, 2004. The address discusses, generally, global terrorist attacks with ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Louise Arbour
Frank E. Schmelzer , Sandra Day O'Connor
Yaser Esam Hamdi, Shafiq Rasul
Aug. 22, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 3838
UN News Centre article reporting a UN experts findings after visiting an "illegal prison" in Afghanistan. The expert reported that the detainees were originally detained by the Northern Alliance and some U.S. forces, he reported that the ...
June 22, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3835
Email discusses and includes a press release of a press briefing with Judge Alberto Gonzales. Judge Gonzales discusses, generally, the war on terror.
Dec. 30, 2004
Email
Thomas A. Johnson
Ed Cummings | Christopher N. Camponovo
Thomas A. Johnson, Edward R. Cummings, Christopher N. Camponovo, Alberto R. Gonzales, Russell K. LaMotte, Jacob K. Cogan, Rosemary A. DiCarlo, Janis Chapman-Gates, Susan P. Suh, Richard Grenell , Monica L. Cummings, Eric L. Owens , Daniel Dell'Orto, Keith B. Alexander, George W. Bush, William J. Haynes, II, Jay S. Bybee, John C. Yoo, Scott McClellan, James T. Hill, Mary Walker, Geoffrey D. Miller, John P. Abizaid, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Newt Minow, Lloyd Cutler
Mohammed al Qahtani, Jose Padilla, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Aug. 13, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 3836
Radio Free Asia article about twenty-two Chinese-origin ethnic Uyghur detainees (they are a minority Muslim population in China) being held in Guantanamo. The article discusses allegations that the Uyghur detainees were abused/mistreated by a ...
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Colin L. Powell
May 26, 2004 | DOS | ACLU-RDI 3832
Roundtable interview with Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell. On May 26. 2004, Mr. Powell answered a series of questions from journalists regarding allegations of detainee abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Frank E. Schmelzer , Antonio Taguba, Colin L. Powell, Richard Green Lugar, Tom Lantos, Henry J. Hyde, George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Richard B. Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, John D. Ashcroft
June 16, 2004 | ACLU-RDI 3833
Press release from the ICRC discussing the Geneva Convention's policy on a state's mistreatment of detainees, prisoners of war and internees.
Dec. 30, 2004
Other
Frank E. Schmelzer